Integrated Planning for Distribution Automation and Network Capacity Expansion

Due to the large amount of resources needed for implementing distribution automation systems (DASs), distribution companies (DISCOs) should develop long term plans for this project. Similarly, DISCOs have network capacity expansion (NCX) plans which specify the scheme of constructing the feeders and substations. Since considering DAS may lead to more efficient NCX plans, the planner should revise the NCX plan through the DAS planning. On the other hand, for DAS planning it is necessary to consider a NCX plan as a platform to determine the time and location for installation of automation equipment. Therefore the planner should simultaneously work on two plans, each of them affects the other. To facilitate this complicated planning procedure, this paper presents a novel method for integrated planning for NCX and DAS implementation. The proposed method develops a comprehensive plan in which the optimal scheme and schedule for constructing the lines and substations and installation of automation equipment is specified. To reduce the huge computational burden, an optimization method based on genetic algorithm is proposed. The proposed method is evaluated on an illustrative test network and the obtained results are presented and discussed.